Montco Kitchens Have Visitors Inspectors Come Unannounced Cover Story

When you dine at a restaurant, you don't know whether the water is disinfected, mold lies above your food in the refrigerator or toxic chemicals are stored next to the soda.

But inspectors from the county's new health department make it their business to know.

"The dining room and the kitchen can be like night and day," said Anna Johnson-Entsuah, an environmental health field supervisor with the department, which began inspecting restaurants and providing other health services Oct. 1.

"It can be clean in the dining room, but back there in the kitchen is a nightmare."

For years, most municipalities in the Upper Perkiomen and Indian Valley areas relied on the state Department of Environmental Resources to check up on restaurants.

But the DER did not have the staff to inspect restaurants often enough, Johnson-Entsuah said.

"Some restaurants haven't been examined for some time," said Lawrence A. Sulpizio, also an environmental health field supervisor for the county health department.

"Some time" has been as much as a few years.

The county will inspect restaurants twice a year -- and more often if complaints are lodged or the inspectors have to make sure problems have been corrected, Johnson-Entsuah said.

Last month, the department's 10 inspectors checked on roughly 250 of the 1,800 food service establishments in the county, Johnson-Entsuah estimated. More inspectors will be hired this year.

The visits are unannounced.

"I like to eat," said Sulpizio, who went through two and a half years of training to work as a restaurant inspector, first for Norristown Borough and now for the county. "I want people to enjoy themselves. They pay for what they get, and what they get should be food that is fresh, wholesome and properly prepared."

Many of the practices -- or lack of them -- that Johnson-Entsuah and Sulpizio tell restaurant operators to change go on in kitchens at home every day.

Few people dip dishes in a sanitizing solution in addition to soapy water, for example.

Many home cutting boards have scrapes and gouges that haven't been sanded off and can be breeding grounds for bacteria.

And although many people scour the stove and counter, they may not always hit the crevices between the two.

But other practices are peculiar to restaurants.

For example, eggs should be cooked one serving at a time. If one bad egg gets in a big batch of scrambled eggs, many people will get sick instead of just one.

Mixing bowls should be washed after each use. If they sit out all day, bacteria can begin to grow in the food residue and infect customers by the end of the day.

Thermometers should be used to make sure food taken out of cold storage is reheated to a high enough temperature -- 165 degrees.

Sulpizio and Johnson-Entsuah recently checked for these and other procedures at two restaurants in the Upper Perkiomen Valley. Both restaurant licenses are due to be renewed this month.

One restaurant they rated as average; the owner asked that it not be identified.

The other restaurant, Rockwell's Fine Food and Spirits in Green Lane, is above average, the two county inspectors said.

They evaluated both places for their water supply, sewage disposal, cleanup methods and techniques for food preparation, storage and handling.

They checked them inside and out, peering in dark corners, at floors and ceilings, in sinks and stoves and freezers, in bathrooms.

They probed with flashlights and thermometers and searched for signs of fruit flies and of roaches and rodents.

At the restaurant they rated average, the inspectors found several problems but only one serious enough that it had to be corrected before they left.

In one refrigerator, mold was growing on the rubber around the door, the catch on the door was broken, a plastic sheet covered open wiring and the ice was thick on the shelves. Food inside was uncovered.

The food was ordered destroyed on the spot, and the refrigerator was unplugged. It cannot be used again until it is repaired.

The outdoor trash dumpster was left open, inviting rodents and other pests.

Soda was stored on the floor, and three cans of paint and wood preservative were kept above soda cans.

Food was stored in unmarked containers. A wiping cloth was not kept in a sanitizing solution between uses, and no sanitizing solution was used on the dishes after they were washed in a sink.

The person preparing food had shoulder-length hair that was not tied up. A light above the stove did not have a cover that would keep shards out of the food below if the bulb broke.

A slicer for meats and cheeses was not properly cleaned between uses. During the day, bacteria could begin to grow in the food particles left on the slicer.

Sulpizio found no indication of what if any disinfectant was used on the water. He also asked for a copy of tests done on the water because of a concern about chemical contamination.